The Family of Michael Bisbee

The family is devastated and is asking  for now, that you limit contact with them. Liz will let us know when she is ready to see guests and friends. The family doesn't need food currently but will. That also will be announced.  Details of a memorial service will also be updated when they become available.

The family of Michael will need funds to get through this tragedy. Any amount will help them now and in the future. Any funds that can be saved for the girls education will be. 

This comes from a letter that was found on Michael's phone, these are Michael's words and no one could have said it better, it is his story, and love for his wife and his children:

I started working a paper route when I was 10 and quickly added 4 more routes into the original one and almost all of the money I earned was spent on gifts and other things for my family and friends.  I almost never spent any of the money on myself.  As I got a little older, I would fill up a gas can, along with some oil and water, and in the afternoons after I finished my homework, would ride my bike up and down the Northern State Parkway looking for people that got stuck and needed help.  In high school I injured my knee, but I still took time out every week to coach younger less fortune kids basketball and baseball.  Over the years, nothing could keep me still.  I always worked and tried to help everyone I could any time anyone ever needed any help.  The surgeries continued through college and it was a very difficult time trying to go to school having one operation after another and trying to get jobs in between.  ON some occasions, I held 3 jobs at one time between surgeries because I knew that I would not be able to work while I tried to get back on my feet.  As the surgeries went by and the doctors tried to keep me walking, they, and the physical therapists often would ask me to speak with someone going through their first operation and PT to help them get through it and adjust to life afterwards. 

I am currently working 7 days a week and more often than not, 18 hours a day to keep our lights on.  Unfortunately, the few minor rental deals we’ve had over the past 6 months have not been enough to put a dent into our monthly expenses and it is not because we live extravagantly, it is simply because we are trying to give our daughters the best upbringing possible. 

I went out on my own, spent time with computers and taught myself everything I could and applied for a job as a consultant to Deloitte & Touche, one of the largest accounting firms in the world I went out on my own, spent time with computers and taught myself everything I could and applied for a job as a consultant to Deloitte & Touche, one of the largest accounting firms in the world.

That’s when I met the 2nd most wonderful woman Liz.  I had just finished a project at the World Trade Center, moving the company from the 78th floor of 2 World Trade (incidentally, exactly where the 2nd plane hit), to 75 Maiden Lane just a few blocks away, because I convinced the company that I needed more space for the computer network servers.  Fortunately, the employees of that company were not in the Trade Center on that fateful morning, I’m not saying that I saved them, but they felt that way.  Back in 1989 though, between surgeries, however, I did save someone’s life.  I was driving on the Wantagh Parkway and a car coming in the opposite direction hit the wooden guardrail, the guardrail went through the car like skewer .  I ran and jumped over the divider, not even thinking about my knee, when I got to the car, I was the first one there, I got the driver out and sit him up against the guardrail, I wrapped a sheet around the head of the passenger in the front seat, then I jumped into the back seat, where I could see the woman I applied pressure to her body and stayed there, even after a doctor arrived and instructed me not to let go, I held my hand there for almost 20 minutes, until a lifeflight helicopter arrived and the paramedics took over.  I was on crutches for several weeks after that.

When I met Liz, I put aside everything at that time, because I could almost immediately tell that she was someone special and after getting to know her only a short time, I couldn’t help falling in love with her.  I could just tell that she would be the most wonderful wife and mother, which she has turned out to be without any help from me or anyone else.  I am truly one of the most fortunate men in the world to be married to her and have the wonderful children that she has given to me.

I truly wish that I could work a job where Liz could just stay home and take care of the girls, or do whatever work she wished to do, without the burden of worrying how we are going to pay our bills.  I do everything I can for my family and still it isn’t enough, and I don’t know of many people who have personally been through what I have gone through while at the same time, have tragedy strike all around. 

Michael